Evrofinance Mosnarbank - no, that's not a Maracucho name

Ever heard of Evrofinance Mosnarbank SA? Me neither…which is funny, considering – as Daniel Cancel documents in this lovely in-depth report for Bloomberg – it has recently displaced...

Ever heard of Evrofinance Mosnarbank SA? Me neither…which is funny, considering – as Daniel Cancel documents in this lovely in-depth report for Bloomberg – it has recently displaced Citibank and Credit Suisse Group to become the number-one underwriter of Venezuelan sovereign bonds.

Just this year, they’ve handled $3.6 bn worth.

Who exactly owns it? Funny you should ask because no one really knows: one reason Moody’s gives it a crap Ba3 long term rating and has it on a watchlist for further downgrade. We only know the mamotreto is based in Russia, but most of the capital seems to be Venezuelan – public sector Venezuelan, at that – and that it doesn’t seem to underwrite anybody else’s bonds.

Long story short, the rrrrregimen has figured out a way to be its own bond underwriter, charging itself gawdonlyknows what fees to provide itself that service.

As though the first post-transition Contralor General de la Republica didn’t have a full enough plate as it is…